


'Tis Better to Give

by Karis_Artemisia_Judith



Series: Harbor [5]
Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Presents, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-06
Updated: 2014-12-06
Packaged: 2018-02-28 08:40:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2725922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Karis_Artemisia_Judith/pseuds/Karis_Artemisia_Judith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harbor AU </p><p>Kristoff is NOT enjoying the Christmas crowds at the mall, but he can't leave just yet...</p>
            </blockquote>





	'Tis Better to Give

Kristoff stared around miserably. The mall was packed with people, echoing with the noise of hundreds of people chattering, Christmas music blaring tinnily from every store, children screeching, the endless ding-ding-ding-a-ling of the tiny train bell as it circled around and around the track that surrounded ‘Santa’s Winter Palace’. It was like an assault on his ears, an eternal, hammering assault. And Anna was eating it up. He looked down at his girlfriend and sighed.

Her eyes were wide and sparkling as she took in everything, and she kept tugging on his hand to point out new things, for all the world as if she were five years old. ‘Look! There’s a Sugar Plum Fairy this year! Oh my gosh, look at the little princesses here to meet Santa! They’re so cute, I’m going to die. Do you smell that? Is that chocolate? Oooh let’s go look at the giant gingerbread house! It’s so beautiful, I want to eat it. I just want to climb over this barrier and eat it. Don’t you want to eat it?”

"Anna…no."

She grinned up at him. “C’mon, don’t be a Grinch. Don’t you love Christmas?”

"Christmas is fine," he muttered as someone with a double stroller jostled him and ran over his foot. " _Fine_. It’s the mall that I hate. Look—I know you love all this…this stuff—”

"You mean Christmas spirit?"

"Sure, whatever, but—"

"But you hate it." Anna shrugged a little, looking down. "It’s okay, we can go. We can go back to your place and watch a movie, or something?" She smiled up at him. "We could watch Die Hard!"

Kristoff hugged her to him, feeling relieved. Curling up on the couch with Anna, far away from the mall, sounded like heaven. “Let’s do that, then. But I thought you only watched Christmas movies in December?”

She poked him in the ribs. “Die Hard  _is_  a Christmas movie.”

"Being set on Christmas doesn’t make it a—"

"Don’t argue with me on this, Bjorgman, I will fight you." She punched his arm lightly to demonstrate. "Anyway if you don’t want to watch Die Hard we could always watch something else. We could watch Elf!"

“ _Let’s_  watch Die Hard,” he said hastily. Anna laughed and laced her fingers with his as they strolled toward the mall exit, but as they passed a window display of slim mannequins dressed in glittery cocktail dresses her hand tightened. He looked down to find a frown clouding her face, and then she bit her lip and looked away resolutely. Kristoff stopped.

"What is it?"

"Huh? What is what?"

"What’s wrong?"

She shrugged. “Nothing.”

"Anna—" He tugged her out of the walkway to stand beside a pillar, where they were shielded from the mob of shoppers. "Something’s bothering you. Do you really want to stay? We don’t have to go home."

"No, it’s okay, really! It’s not that."

"Then what?" He slid his hands around her waist, tucking his fingers under the edge of her sweater to find her skin. Anna stepped back, tugging the sweater down, not looking at him. "Anna? Really, what’s wrong? What did I do?"

"You didn’t do anything!" she said quickly. She took his hand, squeezing it. "Really, you didn’t do anything. It’s nothing. It doesn’t matter."

"If it makes you sad, it matters." He smoothed a wayward strand of hair back from her face. "Please, just tell me."

Anna shrugged. “It’s just…I tried on my Christmas dress this morning…”

"Christmas dress?"

"Yeah. It’s this really pretty dress—it’s red, and it has gold sequins and beading, and it’s really, really sparkly, and it was my only really fancy party dress, and it’s not like I have a lot of fancy parties to go to anymore. I almost went to one last year with—well, I didn’t end up going, but that’s why I got the dress, and…and I liked just having it, because it was pretty and special, and this year there  _is_  going to be a fancy party for Elsa’s work, at a ballroom and everything, and she invited me to go with her, and I was all excited to finally wear the dress, but…” She bit her lip, twisting her hands together. “It didn’t fit.”

Kristoff blinked, not sure what to say. “I—okay. So?”

Wrong thing. Anna winced and hunched her shoulders. “Like I said, it wasn’t a big deal. It doesn’t matter. I probably won’t go.”

"No, I didn’t mean—I’m sorry. It is a big deal, I just don’t understand why. So tell me." She was wringing her hands and he reached out to take both of them in his. "C’mon, feistypants. Talk to me."

"It’s just…Okay, so part of it is that I really am disappointed that I can’t wear this dress, because I’ve been wanting to wear it for so long, and it’s so pretty and I…I was kind of looking forward to seeing  _you_  see me in it. I mean, it looked really, really good on me, I swear.” She took a breath. “And another part of it is…is that if it didn’t fit—I mean, I knew I put on a few pounds, but it’s not like I just couldn’t get the zipper all the way up, I mean I couldn’t even get the dress on over my hips. It has this really sleek, tight skirt, and it used to fit perfect but now…and all my chubby bits were sort of hanging out, and…I looked really bad.” Anna bit her lip so hard that Kristoff was afraid she would make it bleed, and her eyes were glittering with tears. “Do I look that bad all the time?” she whispered. “I’m sorry, I…I should probably go back on a diet, if you want I could—”

“ _What_? Anna, no, good grief, of course I don’t want—why would I—” Kristoff stopped, thinking back. Anna didn’t talk much about her previous boyfriend, but he’d learned a few things. He’d learned enough to hate him, anyway. Sometimes little things would slip out in the bubbling stream of Anna’s chatter, and suddenly he could remember half a dozens times when she’d said ‘This is so delicious, I’d forgotten how much I loved eating pizza’ or something like it. Hell, now that he was thinking about it Elsa had even said something one evening when he’d gone over to their apartment and cooked dinner. ‘It’s really good for Anna that you feed her,’ she’d said. He thought she’d meant that Anna, left to her own devices, would live on potato chips and candy, and maybe she had. But if Anna thought that her boyfriend was the one who had the final say in whether she should be on a diet….then maybe not.

"Anna, I don’t want you to do anything like that. I mean, unless  _you_  want to, or I guess maybe if your doctor thinks you need to eat certain things. Maybe not eat marshmallow cereal for dinner half the time, because that’s not real food, but you don’t need to lose weight, or change your body. I  _like_  your body.”

"Really?"

"Really. I like it a lot. A  _lot_.” He reached out for her and she snuggled into his arms.

"Thank you," she mumbled, mouth muffled against his pullover. "I just…couldn’t stop wishing that I had something that looked really good on me, so I could look special."

He chuckled. “Anna, everything looks good on you.” Kristoff paused, thinking. “Nothing looks good on you, too,” he added. Anna smacked his chest, smiling a little.

"You can’t talk like that in public, you’re going to end up on the naughty list."

He grinned at her. “As long as I’m naughty with you, it’s worth it.” Anna laughed and he nuzzled her cheek with his nose, kissing the corner of her mouth. “I think you look pretty special right now,” he said softly.

"Hm. Thank you." She sighed contentedly. "I’m still disappointed that I can’t go to Elsa’s party, but maybe we’ll have our own party. No fancy dresses required."

"Wait, why can’t you go to Elsa’s party?"

"Because! I don’t have anything to wear to a fancy Christmas party! I only had the one really nice dress."

"You can’t…get another dress?"

Anna leaned back, shaking her head. “No…I spent all my paycheck  _and_  all of the spending money Elsa gave me already. I can’t afford a dress.”

"All of—on what?"

She raised an eyebrow at him. “On  _presents_ , of course! It’s Christmas? Time for presents? I got something for everyone at work, and something for Sven, and something for my teachers, and something for you, and then things for Elsa…I always get more than one thing for Elsa, because I’m the only person she gets presents from, so it’s really, really important. Oh! And I got something for your mom, and things for your siblings, and—”

"Anna, Anna, whoa, slow down! You don’t have to give presents to  _everybody_.”

"I know, but I  _love_  presents! Giving presents to people is even better than getting presents, and I _really_  like getting presents.” She beamed up at him, and Kristoff wanted to crush her to his chest and kiss her senseless and tell her how amazingly, incredibly wonderful she was until she believed him. But instead he just stared at her, overwhelmed by how much he loved her. Anna finally shifted uncomfortably and shrugged. “I know, kind of silly, I just…anyway. Let’s get out of here and go watch that movie, okay?”

"Wait—" Kristoff resisted as she started to tug at his hand. He looked from the mall exit, so tantalizingly close and inviting, back to the rest of the mall, where a set of triplets were throwing simultaneous fits on Santa’s throne, their screams drowning out the cheesy music. A woman walking by smacked his elbow with her armload of heavy shopping bags, and someone in the nearby toy store was on the verge of a shouting match with the teenager behind the counter. Kristoff sighed, and started back into the mall, pulling Anna after him.

"Kristoff, what—I thought you wanted to go home!"

"Not yet. First I am going to take you into every store until you find the perfect Christmas dress, and then I’m going to buy it for you."

"Kristoff!" Anna caught him around the waist, squeezing tight. "Kris, I—thank you, really, but you don’t have to do that. You can’t."

"Christmas is the time for presents, right?" he said.

"Yeah, but—"

"So, I’m going to buy a present for my beautiful girlfriend."

"But—" He put a finger over her lips.

"Anna. Let me buy you a dress. Please?"

"Okay," she said softly. "But," she added hastily, "if I try on a dress that’s too expensive—"

Krisoff scooped her up in arms and spun her around, much to the annoyance of the crowd around them. Whatever, Kristoff thought. He was feeling full of Christmas spirit and love for Anna and he didn’t care. He set her down to kiss her. “No looking at price tags,” he said. “If I really can’t afford one, I’ll be honest, but you let me decide that, okay? I want you to find the prettiest, swishiest, most sparkly dress. And then I’m going to buy it, and wrap you up in it like a present, and then you, princess, are going to the ball. Or the Christmas party in a ballroom.”

She leaned against his chest, grinning up at him. “Wrap me up like a present, huh?” she said.

"Yep," he said, blushing and looking away over her head. "Yep, I said that, didn’t I, those words came out of my mouth. Right. Let’s just go find you a dress, before I say something else."

Anna went up on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. “So,” she said, dragging out the word and at the same time dragging her fingers slowly down his chest. “Once I’m all wrapped up….are you going to unwrap me?”


End file.
